STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-UK small caps rise slightly early on

The FTSE Small Caps index is 0.2 percent higher, lagging gains of around 1 percent on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index and the FTSE 250 mid-cap index .

Shares in Goldplat rise 1.5 percent as the gold producer proposes its first ever dividend payment and reports a 52 percent increase in profit before tax for the year to June.

"The shares should re-rate from here as the company demonstrates the resilience of the gold recovery business and continues to grow the potential of its core business as well as bring on a self funded gold production business" Fairfax says in a note. "We remain strong buyers."

City of London's stock adds 2.9 percent as the emerging markets asset management says in its interim statement it expects to maintain the dividend during the current year.

"This is positive news and we raise our dividend forecast from 22 pence to 24 pence, providing a yield of 7.2 percent," N+1 Singer Research says in a note.

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